Title: Princess in Love
Author: Meg Cabot
Series: The Princess Diaries #3
Rating Out of 5: 5 (I will read this again and again and again)
My Bookshelves: Chic lit, Easy reading
Pace: Fast
Format: Novel
Publisher: Harper Teen
Year: 2001
5th sentence, 74th page: Use transitive verbs to create brief, vigorous sentences.

Princess Mia may seem like the luckiest girl ever.

But the truth is, Mia spends all her time doing one of three things: preparing for her nerve-racking entree into Genovian society, slogging through the congestion unique to Manhattan in December, and avoiding further smooches from her hapless boyfriend, Kenny.

For Mia, being a princess in love is not the fairy tale it’s supposed to be… or is it?

Yet again, Cabot manages to make this a fun, smiley, cute story. It’s a great, easy read that had me giggling and smiling throughout. Something that helps to bring a little light into the days when I feel slightly down and just need an easy, happy pick me up.

In Princess in Love, it feels like Mia finally begins to recognise who she is as a person (or at least, she does towards the end). Yes, she’s still heavily influenced by basically everything around her (like every other teenager), but she’s starting to recognise her own strengths and abilities. After all, she’s only supposed to be fourteen, so I completely understand why she’s a little scattered… I know what I was like at fourteen after all. And I didn’t have to deal with any politics!

I completely understand Mia’s confusion about what to do with Kenny. I remember (ironically when I was about fourteen) a friend asking me out in front of everyone. I said yes out of embarrassment, and then couldn’t figure out how to get out of the predicament I had found myself in. It took me twenty-four hours, for Mia, it was a lot longer, but I completely recognised the internal monologue. Which, I think is why this is such a popular series – after all, even ten years after my own confused adolescence, I could completely relate to what was happening.

Mia’s passion for conservation and saving animals is still slightly twisted towards that teenage naivety (again, see fourteen-year-old me, and my sister…). But, there’s so much potential for her to develop this passion. I love that it brings to light some of the animal rights needs and arguments that were around then and now.

Image source: Amazon

Title: Princess in the Spotlight
Author: Meg Cabot
Series: The Princess Diaries #2
Rating Out of 5: 5 (I will read this again and again and again)
My Bookshelves: Chic lit, Easy reading
Pace: Fast
Format: Novel
Publisher: Harper Teen
Year: 2001
5th sentence, 74th page: I honestly don’t.

No one ever said being a Princess was easy.

Just when Mia thought she had the whole princess thing under control, things get out of hand, fast. First there’s an unexpected announcement from her mother. Then Grandmere arranges a national primetime interview for the brand-new crown princess of Genovia. On top of that, intriguing, exasperating letter from a secret admirer begin to arrive.

Before she even has the chance to wonder who those letters are from, Mia is swept up in a whirlwind of royal intrigue the likes of which hasn’t been seen since volume I of The Princess Diaries.

I love Mia. Like me, she is incredibly adept at putting her foot in it. She also overthinks everything and just seems entirely incapable of doing anything in a sane, collected manner. Yet, no matter how much trouble she seems to find herself in (and since this is a teenage girls’ voice, it was amplified), Mia seems to find a way out of it at the end. And there is, again, a beautifully profound moment of self-realisation at the end.

I’ve definitely been a huge fan of the Michael-Mia relationship (that hasn’t actually happened) since the movie. But there is something better about reading about Mia’s completely clueless perusal of her best friend’s brother. It’s completely clear that he likes her, and Mia spends most of Princess in the Spotlight obsessing over him, but she is still oblivious. Even Lilly is aware of the crush. Although she is kind of psychotically and pushily intense, so it’s hard to know how much she understands. Again though, it’s the view lens of a teenager – I wonder what the words about my best friend (if I chose to write them) would say. Especially when I was a more self-absorbed teenager.

Although there are so many very, very good things about this story. Including the wit, humour and sass, I think that one of my favourite things is that it is incredibly easy to read. It is a nice, fun, enjoyable story that makes you believe in family and friends. I can see that it’s a story that I will be able to read again and again, and have it leave a smile on my face.

Image source: Epic Reads

Title: The Princess Diaries
Author: Meg Cabot
Series: The Princess Diaries #1
Rating Out of 5: 5 (I will read this again and again and again)
My Bookshelves: Chic lit, Easy reading
Pace: Fast
Format: Novel
Publisher: Harper Teen
Year: 2000
5th sentence, 74th page: I mean, even though everybody at Albert Einstein High School thinks I’m a freak, I’m sort of getting used to it.

What? A Princess? Me??? Yeah, right.

Mia Thermopolis is pretty sure there’s nothing worse than being a five-foot-nine, flat-chested freshman, who also happens to be flunking Algebra.

Is she ever in for a surprise.

First Mom announces that she’s dating Mia’s Algebra teacher. Then Dad has to go and reveal that he is the crown prince of Genovia. And guess who still doesn’t have a date for the Cultural Diversity Dance?

I got this book yesterday, and bought it because, well, I love the movies. Which is why I wasn’t really expecting to love the books. Generally, I love the movies, or I love the books, but almost never both. Actually, I think that this is the first time I’ve fallen head over heels for both. They’re just different enough that I wasn’t 100% sure of what was going to happen, but so similar that it was that same story that I grew up watching and made me fall in love with Anne Hathaway.

So about the actual book… I loved the diary style of the writing. I haven’t actually read a book like this that I’ve enjoyed, normally there is this feeling of too contrived or teenage angst that I find frustrating. But, although there was a dose of teenage drama and angst (after all, it’s a fourteen-year-old girl we’re talking about), it wasn’t done in a painful manner. Actually, it was incredibly cute and made me feel like I was talking to a good friend. Which of course drew me further into the tale and Mia’s troubles. Sometimes it felt like talking to a slightly dramatic, overwhelmed teenage me. Which is really what you want when reading a story about a fourteen-year-old.

Yet, although Mia is a teenager and angsty, and has her moments of, dare I say it, princess behaviour, she is also incredibly real and solid. She believes in saving the whales, is a vegetarian, and although she constantly states her issues with confrontation, very sure of who she is. She’s just not overly great at arguing with people. To begin with, she seems to find her own way to stick up for herself and her beliefs as the story develops, which of course, makes me love her even more!

For a really good, easy, uplifting read, I definitely recommend this book. It was easy to digest, but fun, witty and had this great sense of ‘be yourself’ throughout it. Now I just have to wait for the next one to arrive…

Image source: Open Book Society